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o the way inexpensive softmodems perform modem tasks in software rather than in hardware in the early days of wavetable synthesis some sound card manufacturers advertised polyphony solely on the midi capabilities alone in this case typically the card is only capable of two channels of digital sound and the polyphony specification solely applies to the number of midi instruments the sound card is capable of producing at once modern sound cards may provide more flexible audio accelerator capabilities which can be used in support of higher levels of polyphony or other purposes such as hardware acceleration of 3d sound positional audio and real time dsp effects list of sound card standards edit see also list of sound chips sound card standards name year audio bit depth sampling frequency type channels pc speaker 1981 6 bit cpu speed dependent 18 9 khz cpu speed dependent pwm 1 pulse width modulation pcjr a 1984 16 volume settings 122 hz to 125 khz psg 3 square wave tone 1 white noise tandy 1000 a 1984 16 volume settings 6 bit 122 hz to 125 khz psg 3 square wave tone 1 white noise 1 pulse width modulation mpu 401 1984 midi 1 midi in 2 midi out din sync out tape sync io metronome out covox speech thing 1987 8 bit 7 khz disney sound source up to 44 khz cpu speed dependent pcm 1 dac adlib 1987 64 volume settings 8 bit 16 khz fm synthesizer 6 voice fm synthesizer 5 percussion instruments roland mt 32 1987 16 bit 32 khz midi synthesizer 8 melodic channels 1 rhythm channel sound blaster 1989 8 bit 22 05 khz fm synthesizer dsp 1 dac 11 voice fm synthesizer innovation ssi 2001 1989 8 bit 3906 19 hz max psg 3 voices sound blaster pro 1991 8 bit 44 1 khz mono 22 05 khz stereo roland sound canvas 1991 16 bit 32 khz midi synthesizer 24 voices gravis ultrasound 1992 16 bit 44 1 khz wavetable synthesis 16 stereo channels ac 97 1997 24 bit 96 khz pcm dsp 6 independent output channels environmental audio extensions 2001 digital signal processing 8 simultaneous 3d voices intel high definition audio 2004 32 bit 192 khz pcm dsd 3 dsp up to 15 independent output channels 1 2 the tandy 1000 and the pcjr used the same sound chip but the tandy 1000 used the audio in pin whereas the pcjr did not this allowed the tandy to produce the speaker sound at the same time as the sn74689 color codes edit connectors on the sound cards are color coded as per the pc system design guide 4 they may also have symbols of arrows holes and soundwaves that are associated with each jack position color pantone 4 function type connector symbol pink 701 c analog microphone audio input input 3 5 mm minijack light blue 284 c analog line level audio input input 3 5 mm minijack lime 577 c analog line level audio output for the main stereo signal usually for front speakers output 3 5 mm minijack orange 157 c analog line level audio output for center channel speaker and subwoofer output 3 5 mm minijack black analog line level audio output for surround speakers typically rear stereo output 3 5 mm minijack silver grey 422 c analog line level audio output for surround optional side stereo output 3 5 mm minijack brown dark 4645 c analog line level audio output for a special panning right to left speaker output 3 5 mm minijack gold grey game port midi input da 15 game port midi many desktop pcs also include a front panel and the front panel usually includes analog audio jacks color symbol function connector pink analog microphone audio input mono or stereo 3 5 mm minijack lime analog audio output for headphones 3 5 mm minijack history of sound cards for the ibm pc architecture edit the adlib music synthesizer card was one of the first sound cards c 1990 note the manual volume adjustment knob isa 8 bus sound card mozart 16 for isa 16 bus a turtle beach sound card for pci bus echo digital audio s indigo io pcmcia card 24 bit 96 khz stereo in out sound card a via technologies envy sound card for pc 5 1 channel for pci slot sound cards for ibm pc compatible computers were very uncommon until 1988 for the majority ibm pc users the internal pc speaker was the only way for early pc software to produce sound and music 5 the speaker hardware was typically limited to square waves the resulting sound was generally described as beeps and boops which resulted in the common nickname beeper several companies most notably access software developed techniques for digital sound reproduction over the pc speaker like realsound the resulting audio while functional suffered from the heavily distorted output and low volume and usually required all other processing to be stopped while sounds were played other home computers of the 1980s like the commodore 64 included hardware support for digital sound playback or music synthesis leaving the ibm pc at a disadvantage when it came to multimedia applications early sound cards for the ibm pc platform were not designed for gaming or multimedia applications but rather on specific audio applications such as music composition with the adlib personal music system ibm music feature card and creative music system or on speech synthesis like digispeech ds201 covox speech thing and street electronics echo in 1988 a panel of computer game ceos stated at the consumer electronics show that the pc s limited sound capability prevented it from becoming the leading home computer that it needed a 49 79 sound card with better capability than current products and that once such hardware was widely installed their companies would support it sierra on line which had pioneered supporting ega and vga video and 3 1 2 disks promised that year to support the adlib ibm music feature and roland mt 32 sound cards in its games 6 a 1989 computer gaming world survey found that 18 of 25 game companies planned to support adlib six roland and covox and seven creative music system game blaster 7 hardware manufacturers edit one of the first manufacturers of sound cards for the ibm pc was adlib 5 which produced a card based on the yamaha ym3812 sound chip also known as the opl2 the adlib had two modes a 9 voice mode where each voice could be fully programmed and a less frequently used percussion mode with 3 regular voices producing 5 independent percussion only voices for a total of 11 b creative labs also marketed a sound card called the creative music system c ms at about the same time although the c ms had twelve voices to adlib s nine and was a stereo card while the adlib was mono the basic technology behind it was based on the philips saa1099 chip which was essentially a square wave generator it sounded much like twelve simultaneous pc speakers would have except for each channel having amplitude control and failed to sell well even after creative renamed it the game blaster a year later and marketed it through radioshack in the us the game blaster retailed for under 100 and was compatible with many popular games such as silpheed a large change in the ibm pc compatible sound card market happened when creative labs introduced the sound blaster card 5 recommended by microsoft to developers creating software based on the multimedia pc standard 8 the sound blaster cloned the adlib and added a sound coprocessor c for recording and playback of digital audio the card also included a game port for adding a joystick and the capability to interface to midi equipment using the game port and a special cable with adlib compatibility and more features at nearly the same price most buyers chose the sound blaster it eventually outsold the adlib and dominated the market roland also made sound cards in the late 1980s such as the mt 32 5 and lapc i roland cards sold for hundreds of dollars many games such as silpheed and police quest ii had music written for their cards the cards were often poor at sound effects such as laughs but for music were by far the best sound cards available until the mid nineties some roland cards such as the scc and later versions of the mt 32 were made to be less expensive by 1992 one sound card vendor advertised that its product was sound blaster adlib disney sound source and covox speech thing compatible 9 responding to readers complaining about an article on sound cards that unfavorably mentioned the gravis ultrasound computer gaming world stated in january 1994 that the de facto standard in the gaming world is sound blaster compatibility it would have been unfair to have recommended anything else 10 the magazine that year stated that wing commander ii was probably the game responsible for making it the standard card 11 the sound blaster line of cards together with the first inexpensive cd rom drives and evolving video technology ushered in a new era of multimedia computer applications that could play back cd audio add recorded dialogue to video games or even reproduce full motion video albeit at much lower resolutions and quality in early days the widespread decision to support the sound blaster design in multimedia and entertainment titles meant that future sound cards such as media vision s pro audio spectrum and the gravis ultrasound had to be sound blaster compatible if they were to sell well until the early 2000s when the ac 97 audio standard became more widespread and eventually usurped the soundblaster as a standard due to its low cost and integration into many motherboards sound blaster compatibility was a standard that many other sound cards supported to maintain compatibility with many games and applications released industry adoption edit three early isa 16 bit pc sound cards showing the progression toward integrated chipsets when game company sierra on line opted to support add on music hardware in addition to built in hardware such as the pc speaker and built in sound capabilities of the ibm pcjr and tandy 1000 what could be done with sound and music on the ibm pc changed dramatically two of the companies sierra partnered with were roland and adlib opting to produce in game music for king s quest 4 that supported the mt 32 and adlib music synthesizer the mt 32 had superior output quality due in part to its method of sound synthesis as well as built in reverb since it was the most sophisticated synthesizer they supported sierra chose to use most of the mt 32 s custom features and unconventional instrument patches producing background sound effects e g chirping birds clopping horse hooves etc before the sound blaster brought digital audio playback to the pc many game companies also supported the mt 32 but supported the adlib card as an alternative because of the latter s higher market base the adoption of the mt 32 led the way for the creation of the mpu 401 roland sound canvas and general midi standards as the most common means of playing in game music until the mid 1990s feature evolution edit this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed may 2024 learn how and when to remove this message early isa bus sound cards were half duplex meaning they could not record and play digitized sound simultaneously later isa cards like the soundblaster awe series and plug and play soundblaster clones supported simultaneous recording and playback but at the expense of using up two irq and dma channels instead of one conventional pci bus cards generally do not have these limitations and are mostly full duplex sound cards have evolved in terms of digital audio sampling rate starting from 8 bit 11025 hz to 32 bit 192 khz that the latest solutions support along the way some cards started offering wavetable synthesis which provides superior midi synthesis quality relative to the earlier yamaha opl based solutions which use fm synthesis some higher end cards such as sound blaster awe32 sound blaster awe64 and sound blaster live introduced their own ram and processor for user definable sound samples and midi instruments as well as to offload audio processing from the cpu later the integrated audio ac 97 and later hd audio prefers the use of a software midi synthesizer for example microsoft gs wavetable sw synth in microsoft windows with some exceptions d for years sound cards most notably the sound blaster series and their compatibles had only one or two channels of digital sound early games and mod players needing more channels than a card could support had to resort to mixing multiple channels in software even today the tendency is still to mix multiple sound streams in software except in products specifically intended for gamers or professional musicians crippling of features edit main article crippleware as of 2024 sound cards are not commonly programmed with the audio loopback systems commonly called stereo mix wave out mix mono mix or what u hear which previously allowed users to digitally record output otherwise only accessible to speakers lenovo and other manufacturers fail to implement the feature in hardware while other manufacturers disable the driver from supporting it in some cases loopback can be reinstated with driver updates 12 alternatively software such as virtual audio cable can be purchased to enable the functionality according to microsoft the functionality was hidden by default in windows vista to reduce user confusion but is still available as long as the underlying sound card drivers and hardware support it 13 ultimately the user can use the analog loophole and connect the line out directly to the line in on the sound card however in laptops manufacturers have gradually moved from providing 3 separate jacks with trs connectors usually for line in line out headphone out and microphone into just a single combo jack with trrs connector that combines inputs and outputs outputs edit the number of physical sound channels has also increased the first sound card solutions were mono stereo sound was introduced in the early 1980s and quadraphonic sound came in 1989 this was shortly followed by 5 1 channel audio the latest sound cards support up to 8 audio channels for the 7 1 speaker setup 14 a few early sound cards had sufficient power to drive unpowered speakers directly for example two watts per channel with the popularity of amplified speakers sound cards no longer have a power stage though in many cases they can adequately drive headphones 15 professional sound cards edit main article audio interface a pair of professional rackmount audio interfaces professional sound cards are sound cards optimized for high fidelity low latency multichannel sound recording sound playback and or gaming their drivers usually follow the audio stream input output protocol for use with professional sound engineering and music software e professional audio interfaces often have industry standard inputs in addition to analogue audio in this case adat tdif and s pdif professional sound cards are usually described as audio interfaces and sometimes have the form of external rack mountable units using usb firewire or an optical interface to offer sufficient data rates the emphas...
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